New Orleans was shocked when three of the ten prisoners were caught after a daring escape. Two are still on the run. Here’s what we know about the search and the security problems at the jail.
Three of the ten prisoners who escaped from a New Orleans jail earlier this month have been caught, authorities said Monday. This is a dramatic turn of events. The latest captures are good news for the ongoing manhunt, but two of the people who got away are still on the run after more than a week.
The fact that the prisoners were caught in two different states shows how far the police have gone to find the fugitives. The first man was caught in Baton Rouge, Louisiana. The second and third men were caught in Walker County, Texas. Louisiana State Police say that the arrests went off without a hitch, but there are still not many details about how they were caught.
How the Great Escape Took Place
There was a brave and well-thought-out plan behind the escape on May 16. The prisoners took advantage of some very obvious security holes at the Orleans Justice Center. They broke through a broken cell door, crawled through a hole behind a toilet, climbed a barbed-wire fence, and then disappeared into the night.
The prison break was so smooth that the prisoners’ absence wasn’t noticed until the headcount the next morning. It wasn’t found until hours later that the escape had happened, which shocked the local police force. The prisoners wrote something vague on the jail wall: “To Easy LoL,” with an arrow pointing to the hole they used to get out.
A Look Through Multiple States
After they got away, the police began a thorough search that began in the New Orleans area and eventually spread to neighboring states. Local police in Louisiana focused on the search, but their counterparts in Texas were very important in catching two of the teens who got away.
The men who were caught again on Monday are named Jermaine Donald, Leo Tate, and Lenton Vanburen. They were in the group of prisoners who were waiting to be tried or sentenced for serious crimes, such as murder and armed robbery. Concerns have been raised about the security at the Orleans Justice Center after they got away.
Several other escapees had already been caught by the police. Five people—Dkenan Dennis, Corey Boyd, Gary C. Price, Kendell Myles, and Robert Moody—were arrested after local and state police worked together. The hunt goes on, though, because two of the original ten escapees have still not been found.
Security Flaws: A Weak Jail System
The risky jailbreak showed that the jail system had several security holes. Investigations have shown that one of the jail’s maintenance workers may have helped the prisoners get away. The worker is accused of turning off the toilet’s water, which made the hole that the prisoners used to get out. The worker told the authorities that one of the prisoners had threatened him and that he was afraid of what would happen if he didn’t do what they said.
Because of the security breach, a lot of attention has been paid to how the facility was being run. Officials in Louisiana say that the escape went unnoticed for hours because of poor maintenance and monitoring systems that didn’t work.
Besides the maintenance worker, four other people have been arrested on charges that they helped the prisoners while they were on the run. People in this group are said to have helped the escapees get away by giving them rides and other resources.
A Manhunt Still Going On
Part of this high-profile case is over now that Vanburen, Tate, and Donald have been caught, but the authorities are still looking for the other two escapees, whose names have not been made public.
Police departments at the state and local levels have told people to be careful and report any strange behavior. The search goes on in several states because these dangerous men are still on the run. At this point, the police are hoping that the last few escapees will soon be caught.
The escape is still being looked into, which has brought up important questions about the New Orleans jail system and its ability to keep dangerous criminals locked up. Authorities are working to make sure that such a daring escape will never happen again. More information is expected to come out soon.
“This article was written by Mathew Owen. AI tools were used lightly for grammar and formatting, but the ideas, words, and edits are all mine.”
